Organic Companies Win Packaging Honors

The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) named the winners of its 2006 Clear Choice Awards during the Clear Choice Awards Presentation and Reception at the McCormick Place Hyatt in Chicago on May 8, 2006 (gpi.org). The only awards program that recognizes consumer product goods (CPG) companies that package their food, beverage, cosmetic and fragrance products in glass, the awards presentation recognized 12 CPG companies and their achievement in expanding the frontiers of glass packaging design and new product innovation.

Honest Tea was named the Organic Beverage category winner for its Just Green and Just Black Teas, unsweetened, ready-to-drink organic teas packaged in glass containers by supply company O-I. As one of the nation’s best-selling bottled organic teas, Honest Tea launched Just Green and Just Black tea this past January at the Winter Fancy Foods Show. The cut-and-stack labeling on both bottles feature serene photos of raw black and green teas.

The Organic Food category winning product was Safeway’s O Organics’ Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce, packaged in glass containers supplied by Saint-Gobain Containers. Under its new O Organics private label, the Safeway grocery store chain has released more than 150 USDA-certified organic food products. In an effort to truly position the new O product line as authentically organic and pure, food and beverage products such as salsa, pasta sauce and maple syrup are all packaged in 100% recyclable glass bottles and jars.
“Glass says ‘purity,’ ‘premium,’ and ‘sustainability,’ like no other packaging material,” said GPI President Joseph Cattaneo. “Given the ongoing growth of the organic foods market and the organic product food manufacturers’ preference for glass packaging, consumer product goods manufacturers are starting to view glass as the organic packaging material of choice.”

All 2006 Clear Choice Award winners received an engraved Steuben Glass award, industry recognition and brand building media coverage.